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Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, will enter the Bosnian market this year by introducing flights to Banja Luka. It comes following protracted talks with the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The carrier will introduce two weekly services from Charleroi Airport in Belgium, each Monday and Friday, starting October 29, as well as from Memmingen in Germany from October 30, each Tuesday and Saturday. The Prime Minister of the entity, Željka Cvijanović, has said that "several additional destinations will also be launched" by the airline in the coming period. Tickets for the new routes are already available for purchase through the carrier's website.
Commenting on the new route, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Executive for Belgium, Helene Begasse, said, “We are pleased to announce a new Brussels Charleroi to Banja Luka route commencing this November. This new route marks Ryanair's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and wi…

The world's largest carrier, American Airlines, is considering introducing seasonal flights to Dubrovnik. According to the "TangoSix" portal, the company is in talks with the airport over a seasonal service from Philadelphia. A decision on the matter is expected within the next month. American operates a number of seasonal flights to Europe from its Philadelphia hub including Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Prague, Shannon and Venice. This year, the airline expanded its reach from Philadelphia into Europe with seasonal flights to Budapest and Prague. Both are operated by its Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The move is seen as affirming American’s commitment to Philadelphia as a trans-Atlantic gateway.
Dubrovnik Airport has identified the United States and South Korea as two far-away markets which could sustain services to the coastal city. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Dubrovnik Airport's General Manager, Frano Luetić, said, "These two far-…

Air Croatia suspends flights until June

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Air Croatia temporarily grounded

Start-up Air Croatia has temporarily suspended all services, just weeks in from its launch. In a statement to the “Ch-Aviation” portal, the company said the firm responsible for processing their credit card transactions had failed to forward funds to the airline, leading to Air Croatia’s inability to pay for the wet-lease of Denim Air’s ATR 42, which it uses to maintain flights. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, passengers who have booked tickets with the company have been informed of the issue and will be given further instructions in due course. Air Croatia says all of its flights have been suspended until June 2 by which time it hopes to resolve outstanding issues with its payments.

Air Croatia launched flights on April 2 with a 48-seat ATR turboprop leased from Dutch-based Denim Air, operating from Zagreb to Budapest, Prague, Rome and Milan. Services to Budapest were suspended until June shortly after they were inaugurated, although the company continued to maintain flights to the latter three destinations. Recently, Air Croatia announced it would also launch services to Mostar and Nuremberg, however, these plans have now been shelved. The company does not hold an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC), using the one held by Denim Air instead. Spanish airline Aeronova provided the crew on all services. The company faced no direct competition on any of its routes.

Originally, Air Croatia was to inaugurate flights last summer, but they were delayed until December before being pushed back to March and then again to April this year. At first, the company planned to wet-lease a ČSA Czech Airlines Airbus A319 and then an Estonian Air Embraer E170 jet, but only recently decided to switch to Denim Air’s ATR. According to its current schedule, services to Budapest and Prague are set to resume on June 2, while flights to Rome and Milan are expected to follow suit on June 3. Just last week the company said it had sold 300 tickets in a special five day promotional sale campaign.

First, I think this "airline" is just testing market in ZAG for something "bigger" to come. Maybe I'm wrong, but we'll see.

Second. They didn't sell 300 tickets altogether. They sold them in 5 days, for 9 weekly flights they operate(d), for the plane capacity 48 seats. Let's do some maths now: 9 flights x 48 seats is 432 seats offered in a week, or divided by 7, is 61 seat offered per day. If they sold 300 tickets in 5 days, that is 60 tickets a day SOLD for 61 seats a day offered, which is practically 100%. So, your wow which meant to be LOL is actually REAL WOW, and it's not impossible that they come back in a month time with the bigger plane, as originally planned, or just use this numbers for some further action

Can you please explain me where do you get 9 flights/week? If you consider FCO, MPX, PRG and BUDall being 3pw that is 12 weekly flights and 24 rotations. 24 rotations x 48 seats is 1152 seats offered. Also, you are implying that those 300 tickets sold are all for the same week, hence their load is “practically 100%”In reality this could be spread over 3-4 months as it probably is.

BUD flights suspended the second day of operations, so it's not 12 but 9 flights.

Concerning one way flight or rotation, you cannot discuss it until you don't know are the tickets sold one-way, or return tickets, as it is not stated in the article. However, in 90% situations, people buy return ticket, not one way. Therefore my maths is ok, as ONE ticket sold is generraly sold for TWO flights, as you count them, or one rotation, out- and in-bound.

And third, even if tickets are sold for 3-4 months period, it changes nothing, as the same capacity is on offer during those 3-4 months, so the numbers remain the same

Fourth, I'm not here to quarell and argue. And even if it's 60%, not 100%, by your maths, it's still not bad fir the first weeks of operations, and is completely different from what people here want to show as total disaster. Just to show other possibility was the purpose of my post. Sorry if you missed it.

Sorry i might be stupid but I still don't understand what your percentage really means. Lats say they offer 61 seats daily 9more or less deasn't matter). In one week of sales (as the text stipulates) they sold over 300 tickets (you are right we don't know if this is return tickets but it's safe to say most of them are). OK, so what does this tells us? To me that says that in one week of sales they sold 300 or 600 seats out of the total capacity they have scheduled for 3-4 months.. So in one week they sold almost 5 days worth of capacity/seats. So, i still don't get what are you trying to say without% or 60%. 60% of what? 100 or 60% of 5 days worth of capacity? If yes I agree with you but that to me says absolutely nothing, it might be a good result, I do't know what is considered good forward booking for a start up.

Also, one other thing you have to consider that early adopters are early adopters. Combined with promotional sale it usually means that once they are and promotions are gone, sales tend to come down to their natural levels. So, even in this case 300 doesn't really mean much.

Problem with the card processing company should be resolved in a matter of hours/days, not 6 weeks. If demand is the problem, then it's really bad, since it indicates they can't even cover variable costs. Otherwise, they'd be flying, in order to minimize losses from wet lease (which is the fixed cost).

Over the past couple of days, I've seen a few comments regarding visiting in Belgrade while transiting at the city's airport, and visiting the city as non-Serbs from one of the neighbouring countries of Serbia.

Well, I'm both a Bosniak and have spent time in the city while waiting for my flight back to AUH on the way home to Australia from Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was in January, 2015.

Here are some pointers:

- Visit the transfer desk at Belgrade Airport and let them know of your intentions. If travelling with an Australian passport, you will have no problems as we can visit Serbia for 90 days without a visa. - When you pass the customs and border protection officers, make sure to collect a voucher for your taxi ride to the city. The voucher not only ensures that you ride with a registered taxi cab, but it also has a fixed price – the 25-minute ride to the old part of Belgrade cost me 1,800 RSD (A$20.80). In the meantime, if another taxi driver approaches you and offers you a ride, politely refuse! - Having spent 15 minutes at the airport, and 25 minutes to get to the city, I spent 4 hours sightseeing in the city proper. - I managed to walk around Belgrade Fortress (Kalemegdan), checking out some of the gorgeous ladies, admiring the weaponry and taking some beautiful photos from the monument. There are also many popcorn and ice cream vendors all over the Fortress. Then I walked down Knez Mihailova Pedestrian Street and visited a bookshop. I then bought a burek and yoghurt, a drink and a newspaper, and found a bench to sit down and eat my dinner. By the time I finished that and read a bit of the newspaper, it was time to wrap up my (unfortunately) short time in Belgrade and head to the airport. - The taxi ride from Republic Square, or Trg republike, took 30 minutes, and the process of going through security and passport control at Belgrade Airport took another 15 minutes. - No, the Serbs don’t give a rat about your accent, ethnicity, religion, skin colour or anything else that would differentiate you from the average Serb, whatever that means. I got around saying ‘kruh’ and ‘lijevo,’ was given my little tub of yoghurt for free from the woman in the bakery as she said ‘we hope to see you again in Belgrade,’ and both of the taxi drivers were very curious about both myself, and the country I call home, Australia. Belgrade is a cosmopolitan city – I had no problem, and nor should you, unless of course, you start to sing ‘Evo zore, evo dana’ in the middle of Knez Mihailova! As my father always says, ne traži guzici čepa!

I apologise for my long post, but I just wanted to clarify things for the people who are sceptical about visiting Belgrade as non-Serbs from the neighbouring countries, and those who are sceptical about whether or not they should go into the city for such a short stay!

Two years ago I had a stopover returning home to YYZ from SJJ. We had an early morning flight ZAG-CDG-YYZ so we decided to leave SJJ a day earlier. This was our first time ever in Zagreb and I booked us a hotel close to the city center. Cab drivers both ways were pleasant with nice Mercedes E Class cars. I didn’t need to buy any vouchers o. I find or anything. Wherever I go I tend to talk to cab drivers about local situation, economy, politics etc. That’s my way of getting a feel for the city and people that live in it.. One of them was a bit shy at first but then he started telling me how “Hercegovci” took over everything and how bad they are etc. It was very funny. And he started telling us this only after finding that we are Bosnian Serbs with the Canadian passport. We spend a whole day just wondering around without any special plan. We had a nice meal in the nearby restaurant. I have a what you would call heavy Sarajevo accent. In itself that doesn’t mean anything since Sarajevo is populated by all three nations but I wasn't shy about the fact that I’m Serbian. Needless to say, I had no problem whatsoever and would have no problem going again. Zagreb is very nice city to visit for 2-3 days. I can see why a lot of westerners visit it. Everything is clean, cars are properly parked, there are tourist type signs everywhere, waiters in restaurants seem to all speak several languages etc, etc.. I like Belgrade very much and it’s the only city I would ever live in if I was to return to exYu but I have to admit that Zagreb was ahead in this department. At least this was my impression at the time.

Anon 11:54, I like your “ne traži guzici čepa” saying and I agree with it 100%. I’m sure as a Serbian in Zagreb if you are looking for trouble you’ll have no problem finding it, but as long as one can park a BG license plate car and not expect damaged windshield I think that’s OK. This is what happened to two of my friends in Dubrovnik and Sibenik. I’m not saying that this is a rule but it just happens that I know those people first hand. I wouldn't expect this at the coast though since people there depend lot more on tourism dollar but I guess logic doesn't apply all the time

@Anonymous 5:48 PM, by being 'both,' I attempted to address both those concerned if it was worthwhile visiting Belgrade for such a short amount of time while they transit through the city's airport, and those non-Serbs from the neighbouring countries who were wondering whether it was 'safe' for them to visit Belgrade at all!

LJU and ZAG to me seem to be alot relying on O&D traffic rather than transit pax, or both. The morning departures ex BEG is not seeing proper feed, neither is the late night arrivals connecting to many places.

If anyone has noticed, North/West departures are at 07h and 18h whilst South/East departures are at 13h and 23h.

Its been discussed many times before, the midnight wave needs to improve in order to assist the morning departure feed. CAI, ESB, SVX, ROV, AER, TBS, EVN, GYD could be something to look in to, more for transit feed rather than O&D demand."

+1

They are idiots and you know that by talking to 90% of people of the former Jat, or current Air Serbia. I was talking with some people in the management back-then and they were telling me (talking of Bucharest at that time, before it was even launched) "who the hell is gonna fly there", not even talking about Erevan, like - there isn't any concept or education of middle-high staff about how a transfer airline works, them seeing Air Serbia as a more glorified version of Jat with pretty much the same network, except for the few places in the region. Beirut and Dubai/Abu Dhabi were covered before as well.

I mean, you can't except everything to be done by "brains" in AUH, now with Alitalia they have more than enough on their plate. Some initiatives have to come from the bottom as well, otherwise i see this problem becoing a serious stumbling block for the airline in the future, or a gridlock to be more accurate. A failure and neglect to address this issue on long-term may decide the faith of Air Serbia, where it could end up taking a decremental loop.

As much as Air Serbia's expansion was impressive, let's tell it straight - it was only a half expansion. Only the regional expansion was done in a complete way, but there again, not enough feeding for those flights as the previous member just explained. The fleet utilization increased dramatically and that's in my opinion the biggest achievement [together with kicking TK in the butt]. Now we come to human factor. The impression of many employees is that "they're working twice as much for the same pay". We have to look at it from both sides. If you want the employees attitude to change, you also have to change your attitude towards them and make them feel they are really working for a different company with a different concept, not just in appearances or the new building, stimulate people to think progressively and downgrade those who don't. We're entering now a big discussion for which i even ain't got time to elaborate completely but to summarize my opinion - Air Serbia can be "taken down" (not literally of course) only from the inside.

I think politics played a part here i.e. the need to show a "profit" already in 2014(inverted commas for obvious reasons). I think that hampered the expansion in the sense of leasing say, additional 2 planes.. In any case '14 was impressive. However, as of summer 2015 it looks as if they dont know what they are doing - increasing frequencies without having enough AS planes to sustain it (737s being used) and they dont want /are unable to lease another 1 or 2 planes which would be neccessary to pursue their stated business strategy which was AS planes flying on AS regular routes, and 737s on Aviolet charter routes. Like this they compromise their strategy and product and things start to look much less neat than before. It seems they are starting to improvise which is never good.

If you think about it logically, it does make sense for ASL/EY to reduce the AUH flights to daily during winter. I think at least two times on this blog somebody reported the loads and made a mini trip report and said that in both ways there were around 50 pax. I am pretty sure I saw a ASL trip report on flyertalk or airliners.net where some guy posted a trip report to AUH and the load was also light. My point is that if they reduce AUH its not the end of the world, better utalize that aircraft on some other route or start a new route. I also would not be surprised if ASL turns TLV to seasonal or maybe even axes the route. DO not forget that ASL reduced TLV from daily to 5 weekly this summer, even thought they reported it as an increase from 4 weekly which was during this winter lol.

Therefore some routes might be axed for sure, but where did you guys hear that ASL will get rid of some Airbus aircraft??? Maybe they might lease 1 Airbus to EY only during winter, is that what you mean?

Also I highly doubt A330 will come in September when the season is low. If ASL ever gets A330 it will be March/April period just before busy season ( May-September).

INN-NS, stop with claims without no legit proof. I do believe those guys who said that AUH might get reduced to daily only because the "proof" comes fro shi*ty load factor on those flights. ( 3 trip reports and on couple of occasions people talking about it on here).

How can I believe you when it comes to across the pond flights when you have no actual stats, statement, written conversation with someone in ASL, and so on. Without proof your not credibly and will be consider a bot. Stating that " 18 pilots and 9 first officers are going to training" is NOT PROVING ANYTHING. If eventually US flights do start in a year or two you will be bragging how you told us so. Well I am also saying those flights might start someday, but I am not trolling people and telling them it will start this year in April!

I really do not get how admin is allowing INN-NS to write about US flights every so often without proof. He already deceived us ones didnt he?

"Naravno imam vise izvora iz ASL ali necu ih sigurno na pisati"INN-NS, even if you do have sources from ASL that is still not solid proof. I can claim that I have sources within QR and that I know Al-Bakar personally, which I do not, but I hope you get the point.I appreciate your enthusiasm which is rare on this site, but at the same time when everybody tells you that you are wrong just keep it to yourself. As I said before there is nothing shameful in being wrong just like you were with US flights starting this April.

1) They are suspending a handful of routes not just 22) 2 A319s will leave the fleet3) The mood in Serbia towards the government is changing fast as standards are falling and all of Vucic's ferry tales are turning out to be just ferry tales. That's why censorship, attacks on the ombudsman and anyone who isn't like your oaf INN-NS are on the up because the government is loosing control, they can't keep a grip any more. When Vucic is overthrown Air Serbia will disappear along with Etihad which will pack its bags and leave. I am sure one day someone will go to jail over this entire Air Serbia fiasco. I was a big supporter of Air Serbia at first but now see its a complete farce. The ferry tale ends 31 October.

You would have to assume that they would not start an airline with so little capital that they are finding it hard to pay the bills so soon!!

Whatever the reason, it will be very difficult for the airline to now win back the trust of it's would be customers. I think this might be the last time we see Air Croatia for quite sometime if we see it again at all!

they started really bad to start with, ATR-42 really bad choice, 2nd they should have had line of credit in place you don't pay with credit cards for lease let alone lease of an airliner, i know I am being sarcastic here, but they should have had solid grounds before they took off with plans for world domination.

Only way to start an successful airline these days is to have a good ground work done before you even launch a first flight. If they did that well, they'd be doing a brilliant job now, 40-50 000 passengers per year at least in first year and 100-120 000 in year two.

Right now I have no idea what future holds for Air Croatia, the funny thing is, guys behind Air Croatia probably never operated an airline, or worked for one.

QR is doing some serious duping in BEG, very serious one!! From BEG to DXB via DOH you can travel for like 430 CANADIAN dollars which is only 330 euros. I remember 5-6 years ago I was paying close to 700-800 euros. Also flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo are dirt cheap. For like 700 Canadian you can visit those places. This prices are during months of June and July, so dont say I am looking at winter period dates.

I am happy that QR is sticking around in BEG and hopefully it will be the big winner in BEG since they offer best prices and best product. I am also surprised that BEG is not getting direct flights with QR when such prices are in place. I know that for a lot of Serbs even this is expensive, but here in Canada for 430 dollars I can travel between Ottawa and Toronto really.

In Canada is soo expensiive to travel and they have like 2 airlines. I was extremly suprised to see no low budget airlines in that country. I went to visit a friend in Toronto area and we were planning to visit Montreal for a day, the ticket was around 300 euros. I can not believe it. The worse country when comes to prices and choice of airlines.

There are actually 3 of them. Porter flies out of Toronto Island airport with all Q400 fleet. Listen this is very big country with only 30M population. I guess that's the reason why no healthy competition nevwr developed after WS showed up.

The only saving grace for us in Ontario is that Buffalo and Niagara International are close enough for US flights. To Montreal I go once a year with my family and we always drive. Even if you rent a car it eds up being 10 times cheaper than air or train

Could you please next time use some normal currency?! It's not like we give a f... about the "Canadian dollar", it means nothing to us, 97% of people in-here that is. Make the effort next time and translate it into some normal currency dude.

I just went to their web site and tried to make some fake booking. However I was not able to plug in departure/return date anywhere. Used both IE and Chrome and got the same result. Anybody else noticing the same thing?

I have used cheapoair like 20 times and never had any issues. Also when I search for cheap flights during my spare time a lot of times they are the cheapest option. Aleksandar I would appreciate if you could recommend to me some other options when it comes to flight search engines.

OT: Is it realistic to expect Ryanair or some other company flying from London (or UK for that matter) directly to Tivat ?I'm still puzzled that Montenegro is not shifting more to Western Europe , with respect to tourists.

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